Vanessa: Tell me who you are, what you play and something interesting about yourself - something

no one knows!
 Pete: Alright. My name is Peter, I run around and yell for this band and um….I shaved Aldo's back in the shower once (Aldo plays bass).

Vanessa: So give me a little bit of band history - who started it, when, where you guys are from.
Pete: Ft.Lauderdale, me and Danny.
Vanessa: Danny's the drummer?
Pete: Yup.
Vanessa: Are you Danny? (Pointing to the boy next to Pete)
Pete: No, he's the sweet merch bro.
Merch Bro: I'm just hanging out.
Pete: Well, I played guitar. We were just a bunch of friends and everyone just kind of joined the band. Then we started writing real songs, we kept doing what we were doing and toured a couple times and kept it up and now we're here. That's it. We're just a bunch of bro's - still.
Vanessa: (Laughs) Well, we're bro ho's.
Pete: Bro ho's? That's a good term!

Vanessa: So I hear that after this tour you guys will be having some time off for a while?
Pete: Yup.
Vanessa: What'll you be doing in your spare time?
Pete: Probably finishing writing the record and possibly recording it, depending on how far along we get.
Vanessa: This is going to be your…4th upcoming album?
Pete: Third really. Our third one.
Vanessa: What can fans expect from this third album? Will it be the same politically charged, message-based lyrics?
Pete: Yeah, a little funnier, a little more tongue-in-cheek. Less mosh, but just the right amount. More fast, crazy parts. All the best parts we've ever done, without all the worst parts we've ever done. A fun time, a big fun time.

Vanessa: What do you guys do in your free time on the road?
Pete: Go to malls.
Vanessa: Go to malls?
Pete: Yup that's it. We just go to malls and hang out.
Vanessa: What's your favorite store at the mall?
Merch boy: Hot topic! (Everyone laughs)
Pete: That's terrible, that's not my favorite store! I hate every store at the mall. Wait…yeah, I hate every store at the mall.

Vanessa: What drew you to the hardcore music scene?
Pete: It was just so different from what I used to listen to. I used to listen to metal -machine head, Type O Negative - and then, I heard these bands and they were real heavy, but they had something to say rather than talking about eating people's faces and shit and I got real psyched on it. I was like, "This is what I want to do. I'm totally into this. This is the best thing I've ever heard."
Vanessa: How old were you?
Pete: 16…17.
Vanessa: What was the first band you ever saw?
Pete: My first metal show, I think I was in 7th grade, it was Type O Negative and Pantera. Oh man it was great. My first hardcore show was H20, Murphy's Law, and Shai Hulud. It was one of Shai Hulud's first shows.

Vanessa: Do you think that Hardcore is getting mainstream?
Pete: It depends, some bands like Hatebreed, yes, but other bands that came from hardcore backgrounds that don't really have the same messages they used to, then no, because they're not hardcore bands anymore. Once they drop all the messages they're a metal band.
Vanessa: So it's the lyrical message that makes hardcore what it is?
Pete: Separated from everything else, yes.
Vanessa: But when you start seeing hardcore bands on MTV2 it kind of loses the effect, doesn't it?
Pete: Yeah slightly, but bands like Hatebreed have worked for everything they've done, and same for Poison the Well. They've worked to get where they are, they totally deserve everything.

Vanessa: So I read from your website that you're really into PETA and animal rights. Are You vegan?
Pete: Yeah. I don't bother with labels, but if you broke it down by definition then I would be.
Vanessa: I'm not so concerned with labels, I just want to know what you guys eat on the road.
Pete: Lots of Taco Bell.
Vanessa: Bean burritos?
Pete: No, like these bean and potato burritos (Hands form an invisible burrito) I only get one of them 'cause they make me sick. We get Chinese food a lot too. I love Chinese food! Sushi! Certain places, like California and New York, have good vegan places and that's always a plus.

Vanessa: What's been your favorite city to play in on this tour so far?
Pete: We've only played two shows. This'll be the third. We've been late to every one except this one. We played Memphis on the way up and that would be our favorite because it was a fucking great show. Memphis is so great. Kids are psyched whenever we come through. We have a lot of friends there and everyone's sooo nice. It's just a fun time all around. I love it.

Vanessa: How would you encourage people who aren't in bands to speak out about their beliefs?
Pete: I would just say get educated on whatever they want to be about and talk to people, anyone really. You can start up conversations with anyone, on the street, or people you see on the bus, or people in the grocery store. I'm more of an asshole. I'll be walking by somebody in the grocery store buying 50 lbs of beef and talk to whoever I'm with and be like, "Oh man, I heard something on the news today about cows and cancer" and hopefully they'll think about it later on.

Vanessa: Those were all the questions I had for now…..let's make up random stuff….
Pete: Oooh I like random stuff!
Rachel (Sitting across from us): If you guys could play with anybody….
Pete: Tom Waits!
V & R: Who?!
Pete: Tom Waits. That'd be great.
Rachel: If you could assemble a whole tour, who would you put on it?
Pete: Ooooh, Motley Crue, Slayer, Tom Waits and…The Killers. I love The Killers. And maybe an NWA reunion, minus Eazy-E of course. That'd be pretty sweet.

Vanessa: What's one of the best experiences you ever had on the road?
Pete: (Pause) Four o'clock in the morning at some stranger's house, just being retarded. It happens every night. It's fucking fun.
Rachel: Any good stories?
Pete: One time this girl stepped in Aldo's shit in the bath tub with her bare feet and squished it between her toes. That was a fun one.
V & R: Eeeeew!!
Pete: A lot of other things but they're kind of incriminating. We set up a tent in somebody's house once. That was fun. Our old merch guy jumped in a fountain at the mall in his boxers and splashed everybody that was sitting by the fountain. It was funny.
Vanessa: Have you been to our mall, here in SD?
Pete: Yeah, the outdoor mall.
Rachel: Fashion Valley.
Pete: That one sucked.
Vanessa: You guys should go to the mall downtown after the show!
Pete: What do they have downtown?
Rachel: Didn't you watch Real World San Diego?
Pete: No

Vanessa: What is the one thing you can't live without on tour?
Pete: That's a good question. I don't know. Tom Waits cd's probably. I bought the Shrek 2 soundtrack today for one Tom Waits song.

Vanessa: What was your favorite band when you were…14?
Pete: Pantera.
Vanessa: They played on Spongebob Squarepants one time.
Pete: Are you serious? Not too fun.
Vanessa: You don't like Spongebob??
Pete: Naw. I watch a lot of dumb shit. I like Scooby Doo. When we recorded our last record we would get home at three in the morning and Scooby Doo was the only thing that was on. That's all I watched the whole time we were recording that record.

Vanessa: Is the scene different in Ft. Lauderdale?
Pete: Yes, when I first started going to shows in south Florida it was great and amazing and bands cared about stuff and kids were real. Now they're all "new jack" kids and they're all 14 and they wear Atreyu shirts - nothing against that band - but they just go to Hot Topic and buy up whatever and say "Ooh I'm going to go in the pit! This is my second show and I'm going to go in the pit and act like I own everything!" They're real stupid. Not all of them are like that, but you can point them out pretty easy.
Vanessa: You shouldn't buy band T-shirts at Hot Topic anyway.
Pete: That's true.

Vanessa: Oh! Tell me about your little spat with Lit.
Pete: (Shakes his head, smiles)
Uh-uh. I don't know anything about that, ok I know something about that….but we didn't do it!
Vanessa: I believe you.
Pete: Alright good.
Rachel: What happened?
Pete: Well, we played three doors down from them in Tallahassee, Florida and… (smacks his lips) out of nowhere, on stage to their 30 fans or whoever was there, they started talking shit about hardcore and straightedge and vegetarianism. Apparently some kids got wind of it and weren't psyched about it, so they decided to take it out on their trailer and bus. That sucks for them. Personally, I think that if you're going to make some kind of statement like that you should be ready to suffer the consequences. They thought it was us apparently. They started talking shit about us on their website, and hardcore kids were pissed 'cause they weren't just talking about us, they were talking about hardcore and straightedge and they had no idea what they were talking about - Lit that is. The hardcore kids went over there and were like, "We're going to murder you and blah blah blah". It was really funny. It showed me how tightly knit the scene is.

Rachel: What is your personal definition of straightedge?
Pete: There's no such thing as a personalized straightedge. It's not an old thing. It wasn't a brand new idea, somebody just gave it a name. It came from Minor Threat and it's: no drugs, no drinking and no sex (promiscuous sex). It's sad for kids who get into hardcore and think, "This is a group that I can join if I say that I'm this and that", but they have no idea what it's about, so they still smoke cigarettes and are still total dipshits and that's all the mall kids and the new jack kids. For me, straightedge is not a label, it's not anything but what I am and who I am. Even if it wasn't called anything that's the way I would be. There's no point in smoking cigarettes, there's no point in drinking alcohol and possibly miss moments of your life, know what I mean?
Vanessa: Totally.
Rachel: Good for you!

Vanessa: Well….I think that's it…
Pete: Well fucking A!

Remembering Never interview conducted January, 2005 by Vanessa Chalmers.
Pictures courtesy of ferretstyle.com.
http://www.rememberingnever.net
http://www.ferretstyle.com

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